Written By Joseph Deem Ed.D.
Myth 1 Rigorous standards and achievement tests stifle creativity.
Myth 2 Rigorous standards and achievement tests always narrow the curriculum.
Myth 3 Rigorous standards and achievement tests inevitably discriminate.
A Misguided Trend is Corrected
There is a widespread and mistaken belief that almost all academic testing is unfair. This belief created an anti-achievement philosophy that is embedded in many K-12 school systems and universities. The most recent iteration was a trend in college admissions where many institutions rejected SAT results as an admission requirement. The anti SAT trend was an extension of persistent misconceptions about achievement tests in general.
This misguided trend is in rapid retreat because it turns out that SAT and other scientifically designed achievement tests are valid and important. According to a recent Fobes article by Dr. Marlena Corcoran (2024) many institutions are reinstating the SAT because recent research demonstrates a strong correlation between SAT scores and college performance. The article includes quotes from several university presidents who reinstated the SAT:
- “The first reason for the (renewed) standardized testing policy concerns students’ readiness to do the level of required academic work.”
- “Standardized test scores are an important predictor of a student’s success. This is true regardless of a student’s background or family income.”
- “Test scores give data points that can be significant in demonstrating that a student can do the academic work.”
An Unproductive Reformation
It seems indisputable that schools should educate all students to master academic content as defined by commonly accepted standards. Furthermore, the standards should be rigorous and aligned to the things students need to know and be able to do. Mastering standards should support students’ future success regardless of their chosen field. Unfortunately, many educational entities have been reformed to take on many tasks that interfere with their true mission. Elements of their reformation include anti-testing and anti-standards advocates who unintentionally demonize high expectations for all students. These advocates inadvertently develop structures that selectively restrict learning to “protect” at risk students, unfortunately, they do not serve the best interest of their students and their parents.
Shooting the Messenger
Test results should be considered valuable information. However well-meaning the intent, the anti-testing and anti-standards champions shoot the messenger and impede student success. The reaction to low test scores should be to answer the question: What systems do we need to put in place to narrow these real achievement gaps? Low expectations inadvertently discriminate against the students the advocates strive to protect. This is true because achievement tests reveal real learning gaps inherent across socio-economic strata. The gaps revealed by tests are embedded in economic systems not students’ brains. Through research, it is abundantly obvious that the observable gaps are not due to an inherent disability and almost all students have the capacity to achieve at expected levels.
Uncomfortable Truths
Schools and school districts are expected to educate all students at every grade level to master appropriate content and performance standards. Modern standards are well defined and scaffold across grade levels. Modern achievement tests are aligned to the content and performance levels embedded in these standards. Mysteriously, students who master academic standards perform at higher levels on achievement tests regardless of ethnicity or socio-economic status. This is an uncomfortable truth that seems to elude the misguided.
Educators need to ensure that students catch up and move forward with “at grade level” instruction. Some will catch up with minimal backtracking and will quickly be prepared to move on. Others will need to move forward with their current grade-level content and receive intensive simultaneous intervention to learn what they missed. When educators condemn a significant portion of their students by teaching previous grade-level content, many will never catch up.
The ill-advised anti-test anti-standards advocates counter that achievement tests restrict curricula and place too much emphasis on test scores at the expense of intellectual diversity, and that standards are too difficult for their students. Given those attitudes, their undesirable outcomes are indisputable; however, this is the inevitable result of standards and achievement testing. They are panicked and dysfunction reactions by entities that lack the capacity to put systems in place to ensure that all students master the standards and meet the expectations that are revealed through testing.
Effective schools and school districts develop systems that train and support their constituents. Well defined systems reduce outcome variance across teachers and schools. The systems they put in place do not restrict creativity. Their systems do not narrow the curricula. Effective educational entities use assessment data to target the specific standards that specific students have not mastered.
Federally Accepted Proof
These are not theoretical beliefs. Effective systems are well researched and proven in the field. For example, a study required by the federal government was conducted that included four elementary schools with similar demographics. Each school had more than 700 students, a 100% poverty designation, and over 30% English learner populations. One school implemented research-based systems as the experimental treatment and three did not. The study was designed and conducted to fulfill the district’s desire to meet the needs of its most impacted populations and to establish the validity of the research-based systems employed in the treatment school. The outcomes of the experiment were so convincing that the district implemented the systems in every elementary school. Consequently, the district received an unsolicited national award from the Ed Trust for district-wide success in raising student achievement.
Solution
Standards Plus promotes the reality that schools must provide equal opportunities for all students to learn their current grade-level standards. Additionally, schools must provide targeted intervention for the students that fall behind. Ensuring that all students receive grade-level instruction is ethical, essential, and effective. Standards Plus’s developers applied extensive research and knowledge from their vast experience working with at-risk students to create valid instructional materials. Standards Plus recognizes the importance of achievement testing as a source of relevant data that indicates real achievement and reveals deficiencies. Standards plus lessons teach students the essential skills that strengthen standards mastery and overcome weaknesses. When the lessons are implemented within an effective system, improved achievement test scores are an inevitable result.